Farewell Mr. Freese

I remember when the Cardinals traded for David Freese back in 2007.  I was not happy at all.  The team sent aging center fielder Jim Edmonds to the Padres, and all they got back was a Minor League third baseman.  I heard the spin about how this Minor Leaguer could be the Cardinals third baseman of the future, and as an added bonus the guy was from suburban St. Louis.

I did not really care about any of it.  I really liked Jim Edmonds.  

I got over it eventually.  Freese started playing for the Cardinals, and was good when he was healthy during the regular season.  Then there is the Postseason.  He is largely responsible for the Cardinals winning the World Series in 2011.    

Not sure any Cardinals fan is ever going to argue that he should be in the Hall of Fame, but he will always be given the same level of love and appreciation as the best players to have worn the birds on the bat.  

I cannot remember a game he played for the Pirates or Dodgers against the Cardinals the last few years where he did not get a standing ovation.  

I have collected a few Freese cards over the years.  Given what he means to St. Louisans, he is probably underrepresented in my baseball card collection.  I do not regularly write about him, and in looking back, I have made two posts about him since 2013 when he was traded to the Angels.  

Two.  

I probably should have spent a little more time writing about his cards after he left the Cardinals, but we cannot go back and change that now.  

pic.twitter.com/czVJztm9iY

— David Freese (@david23freese) October 12, 2019

Especially since David Freese announced his retirement yesterday.  

It took me only a few minutes to dig out my small pile of good David Freese cards, flip through, and pick out my favorites.  There were three that were clearly better than the rest.  

Here they are.....

I always forget how nice these By The Letter cards were back when Upper Deck had an MLB license.  It seems like every time I see a Letter card these days, it's because someone is buying up the junky ones so they can spell out their kids name with cards, frame it, and hang it on a wall in their house.  No judgement.  My wife has my kids names spelled out on their walls too, but with wood letters from a craft store.  

A Five Star autograph, which is always good, but this is not even my best Five Star autograph of Freese.  Let's just move on to the last card.

This is my favorite David Freese card.  I have posted it on here before.  I love the combination of the red background and the silver pen used to sign the card.  Someone at Topps was having a good day when they came up with this card.  

Even though he did not appear in this space regularly, I will miss having David Freese around as a baseball player.  I am not sure if he will have any baseball cards in the future. I am not sure if I will ever go back and find the ones that I am missing.  I  do know that as a Cardinals fan, I will always enjoy looking back at his time with the team.  

David Freese hits a two-run double during the first inning of Game 7 of baseball’s World Series against the Texas Rangers Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, in St. Louis. #OctoberBaseballVibes pic.twitter.com/CowXExhqGt

— cardinalsgifs (@cardinalsgifs) October 11, 2019

Other Cardinals fans will too.  

Farewell Mr. Freese.  

Weekend Countdown: Top 10 Bowman Cardinals Cards

It's Bowman season.  People spending hundreds of dollars for cards of players in the Florida State League.  Here are the rules for this week:

• Bowman cards include the old Bowman cards too, not just the ones from the 1990s and 2000s

• There are only Bowman cards in this post.  Not Bowman Chrome, Heritage, Draft, or even autographs.  

• The cards in the list have to show the player in a Cardinals uniform. The Scott Rolen Bowman rookie is a sweet card, but he's in a Phillies uniform.  

• These are my favorite Bowman cards based on baseball cards, not playing career.  

Count it down.  

10. 1994 Bowman Dmitri Young 

Bowman was a prospect heavy set at this point, and Dmitri Young was the prospect of all Cardinals prospects back in the day.  I guess if I touched the Oscar Taveras card, he probably surpassed the hype of Dmitri Young.  Maybe.  

9. 2012 Bowman Carlos Martinez 

Carlos was a big deal as a Minor Leaguer, but also a perfect example of how out of hand people get with the Bowman comparisons.  I believe that Pedro Martinez was the name that was frequently thrown around when C-Mart was coming up through the Minors.  He's not Pedro Martinez, just a really good pitcher.  Who spent more than $100 on a Carlos Martinez Bowman card?  (I know people did).  

8. 1951 Bowman Marty Marion 

Remember when I used to get the Bowman Draft sets and pick on all the airbrushing?  This Marty Marion card is from a great set, but the picture on my copy has always bothered me.  It looks grainy and pixelated, sort of like a Bowman Draft card.  I know cleaner copies have better pictures, but I got this dirt cheap at a card show complete with staple holes at the top.  Still love the card.  

7. 2009 Bowman David Freese 

If we put David Freese's first Bowman card on a different design, I would probably rank it higher, but I really am not a fan of the 2009 Bowman set.  The giant box with the facsimile signature on it is way too big.  

6. 1990 Bowman Ray Lankford 

Personal bias, plus the rainbow borders on these look sweet.  

5 . 2004 Bowman Yadier Molina 

Flies under the radar a bit as a good Bowman card.  Obviously a card that may not touch some of the other cards on the list in terms of style, but Yadi turned out to be a good player.  What 70 something number do you think he is wearing in this picture?  Got to be Spring Training.  

4. 1951 Bowman Enos Slaughter 

Love the picture on the card, even if it is crinkled on my copy.  The dark background looks good, sort of like an Olan Mills photo.  

3. 1955 Bowman Tommy Alston 

Alston was the first African-American player on the Cardinals.  Always felt like this was sort of an iconic Cardinals card.  The 1955 Bowman set has always been distinct with the television design, like that Alston got a baseball card right away too.  Also a North Carolina guy from Greensboro.  

2. 2001 Bowman Albert Pujols 

The best modern Bowman Cardinals card, and the best right handed player in the history of the team.  

1. 1948 Bowman Stan Musial 

The best vintage Bowman Cardinals card, and the best left handed player in the history of the team.  

ManuPatch MVP

Just filling in some holes from earlier in the 2014 Topps sets.  It's been a good year, the sets have been completed, but there are some other holes in the sets to fill.  Mainly I am trying to track down some of the different insert sets, in particular I am looking for some of the Cardinals cards out of the World Series sets.  Here is my latest pick up from my list...

While Freese is no longer on the Cardinals this is a great card commemorating his World Series MVP award he won while playing for the team in 2011.  Freese has a great post season and single handedly won Game 6 of the World Series for the Cardinals.  If you are Nelson Cruz or Mark Lowe please look away. 

A Trip Into Big D's Part 2- Cardinals (Mizzou too)

In the first part of my A Trip Into Big D's I highlighted the Rays cards that I picked up at my favorite local card shop.  Besides picking up a handful of sweet Rays cards I also picked up some really nice Cardinals pieces too.  Again, the card shop owner Jimmy found all of these cards for me.  Always awesome to have an extra set of eyes looking out for cool cards.  Let's start simple:

This is a game jersey card out of this year's Gypsy Queen set.  Nice looking card of the Cardinals young first baseman.  I am not quite done with completing the Cardinals autographs and relics from this set, but I am close.  Adams was a need.  Along with the Adams card I picked up a copy of an autograph from a former Mizzou player Martin Rucker.  

Mizzou had a bunch of good tight ends starting somewhere in the mid 2000s.  Rucker was an All-American and was one of the primary offensive weapons on the 2007 team that was a Big 12 Championship game away from the BCS Championship Game.  They still beat KU.  

More good stuff.  Back to baseball.  

Topps puts out a ton of parallels.  I swear collectors could go crazy trying to put all of these things together, or at least I would.  I know people who love these.  I really slowed down on parallels a few years back when Topps went wild with camo, pink, sparkles, pies in the face, etc.  Overwhelmed.  I think I have a pink card or two, but none of them are Cardinals and they are whatever I happened to wander into out of the box or packs I opened.  This Freese is numbered out of 50.  

Yes, he's no longer a Cardinal, but Game 6 of the 2011 World Series means I collect him.  He probably does not pay for many of his own beverages around St. Louis.  

I have not done a lot with Rob Kaminsky yet, but he's 19, was a first round pick, and has some really good minor league numbers in A ball.  I've heard good things.  His cards are inexpensive.  Why not?  Two more really good Cardinals.  

Love this card with the green background and the red on the Cardinals jersey.  Not a commonly seen combination, but it works here.  Throw in a nice autograph from the Cardinals top prospect and this a beautiful card.  It's a high number for an Oscar autograph, but it's also an on card autograph.  Last, but not least.....

  

One of the other customers at Big D's pulled this card and already had a Piscotty autograph from his appearance at the Triple A All-Star game from earlier this summer.  Jimmy picked it up for me and I was happy to give this card a new home.  The Cardinals have a crowded outfield, so who knows what the team will do with Piscotty, but this card is a keeper.  Well done Topps. 

Nice Things....

I missed having a working computer and scanner earlier in the month.  I had a bunch of cards that I just took pictures of and posted.  I probably did not do some of these cards justice.  My two favorites:

Really nice.  Also this one:

Two really great looking cards and I must say that I love scanners.  Not that cameras are bad, but I feel like I have done these two cards justice.  

Fabulous Freese Five Star

I swear when I get my computer situation straightened out I will repost this card.  I almost feel bad posting this card without scanning it.  It is that nice.  Really nice.  On appearance alone I give the card a 10 out of 10.  The combination of a red background with silver ink is beautiful when you add in the fact that the card features a picture of Freese wearing his cream colored Cardinals alternate jersey.  Every part of this card is just well done.  I am not sure words can say....

Freese cards are actually something that I have started looking into more since he was traded to the Angels this past off season.  That sounds a little bit backwards, but he was seriously over priced as a Cardinals player.  It happens.  Freese is a hometown guy from St. Louis and did this.....

which was pretty cool until he did this.....

Sometimes it only takes one game to make someone a fan favorite.  Fernando Tatis, Bud Smith, Mark Whiten are just some of my favorite Cardinals players who's legacy with the team was defined by a single moment or a single game.  During his five season in St. Louis Freese posted a respectable .286/.356/.427 line, but appeared in more than 100 games in just two out of the five season.  Add in the fact that his production sagged during the 2013 season and he was always a bit of a defensive liability.  

Now collectors can also add in a trade to Anaheim and the price of Freese cards has plummeted over the past year.  Freese has always been a great signer and had plenty of autographed cards out on the market.  The cards also frequently hovered around $20.  A bit high in my opinion for Freese, but many of his base autographs are now quite easy to find for less than $10, while high end products like my of this Freese Five Star autograph, only cost slightly more than $10.  

The Agony of Defeat

I have been on the lookout for a few Triple Threads over the past weeks when I stumbled upon a rather curious looking card of Cardinals third baseman David Freese.  The jersey pieces on the card appeared slightly off-white and I was hoping that I might land my first Cardinals card featuring a relic piece from the team's newly added third jersey.

The Cardinals had been one of the last team's to add a third jersey, but rather than adding a solid red or blue top, the team opted for an old fashion creme colored jersey.  Several teams, such as the Giants and Braves, have added these to their closets in the past year, so the Cardinals joined the pack.  Here's what the Cardinals version looked like in case you've not seen it:

While the third jersey still has the birds on the bat, it has switched out the word "Cardinals" for the word "St. Louis".  I woke up sometime around 4:30 this morning and it's now almost 11, otherwise I would go ahead and tell you the last time the Cardinals jersey said anything other than Cardinals on the front.  It's been a really, really long long time.  Really long.

Anyway, landing a Cardinals card with a relic of the third jersey would be really coll and a first for my collection.  I tracked the card for a few days and won this auction for a little more than $6 in hopes that the card would be the first of many creme colored Cardinals relics in my collection.  This is what the card looked like on Ebay.

After paying for the card I was eagerly awaiting its arrival in my mailbox.  Today was the day.  I ripped up the envelope and took the card out to check out the relics, paying special attention to the Mr. Freese. The card looks like this up close...

While I was counting on creme colored a closer inspection of the card shows that the relic patches have more of a pink hint to them, than a creme color.  Meaning that more likely than not, someone on the Cardinals clubhouse staff mixed in a red sock into a load of home white jerseys.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a really unique card, but it was not the sort of unique that I was aiming for in going after this card.  Find the David Freese pink relic card can best be summed up by this quote:

So, as it turns out I am still looking for my first creme colored Cardinals relic.  At least, in getting my hopes up, I created the framework for a blog post for when that special card comes into my collection.  Until then, we can't be too gloomy, there was another cool card in the package besides my pink David Freese: 

2013 Triple Threads Matt Holliday 7 Piece Relic "11 Champs" 

This is one of the better Cardinals cards in the Triple Threads set this year and I am really happy to add this card to my collection.  Holliday was the starting left-fielder for the Cardinals during the 2011 season when the Cardinals beat the Rangers to win the World Series.  Holliday, being the model of consistency, put together his usual solid season.  Luckily, a Yankees fan on YouTube managed to put his highlights from the 2011into a single video with some suspect music.  

The Snorting Bull's Chrome Weekend Part 2

One of my favorite parts of the 2013 Topps Chrome set are the die cut insert sets.  I know that Topps had one die cut insert set in last year's Chrome release, and also featured die-cuts in Bowman Platinum and the Golden Moments Giveaway, but I like this year's die cuts better than the others.  The die cuts in this year's remind me a lot of some of the cool inserts from the 90s.

The Chrome set has two die-cut insert sets.  I have put together a complete set of Cardinals Die-Cuts for both of them.  Let's have a look.

These cards look like castles or something.  This set is the Close Connection set and features a card of Matt Holliday and David Freese.  I am not sure why Freese is till getting insert cards, but oh well.  I like all the nooks and crannies in this insert set.  It kind of reminds me of something that Pacific would have put out back in the day.  Not one of those Christmas ornament cards, but they had a lot of cool cuts.  This could have easily been in one of their sets.  

Last insert set is the Dynamic Skill set.  You remember when Upper Deck issued the Vintage sets in the early 2000s that were really copy of Topps sets?  Do you remember how upset Topps was about the cards?  Well, it seems the worm has turned.  Maybe.  They're close.

Anyway, I like the rounded edges on the die-cut.  Not many round baseball card floating around, so a partially round card is probably equally as rare.  

2012 Topps Five Star Jumbo Jerseys

There is an old adage that buying a brand car is a horrible investment since the second you drive it off the dealer's parking lot you've lost thousands of dollars.  Honestly, I like new cars and both of the cars I currently own I bought brand new straight off the lot.  They both had that terrific new car smell and are still both fun to drive.

 In many way baseball cards a little bit like new cars.  Last fall one of the last releases of the 2012 card year put out by Topps was the Five Star set.  Collectors loved this high-end product and flocked to buy up the wax.  Cards also popped up all over the secondary market and were really popular.  I picked up several along the way focusing mainly on the autographs.  Since they were low-print runs and on-card autographs, I figured that many of the cards would run dry after a short time on the market.  My favorite autograph I picked up was this Evan Longoria:

So, how does this all relate to driving a brand new car of the lot?  If you could move back the hands of time to the week that Five Star was released and set a goal to trade or purchase three jumbo Five Star jersey cards you would likely have paid fifteen to twenty dollars in trade for each of the cards.  Collectors opening wax were quick to throw the large jersey swatches up on Ebay and recoup some of their money.  I had three primary targets: David Price, Matt Moore, and David Freese.

The week of the Five Star release I had the opportunity to buy all three for around $65 delivered.  I did not like the number, so I waited.  While cards maintain there new card luster a little longer than a new car, the price eventually does float downward.  You just need a little bit of patience.  So, this weekend I was looking around for some cards when someone approached me with two Rays jumbo jerseys.

2012 Topps Five Star David Price Jumbo Jersey

 2012 Topps Five Star Matt Moore Jumbo Jersey 

I naturally picked up both cards and was able to swing a day later that day for my third, and final, jumbo jersey card from my target list.  David Freese.  All in all, it was a successful day and went a long way in wrapping up my collection of Five Star cards.  I have one more autograph I am trying to track down and I will be able to put this set to rest.

2012 Topps Five Star David Freese Jumbo Jersey

A Case Break With A Few Trades

I used to trade regularly on Facebook, but have wained on it a little in recent months.  Instead, I have been trying other avenues both through other social networking sites and actually face to face trading.  Venturing and dabbling in new media is always a little bit scary for all us, but once you get into a good trading loop, it's easy to pick up on the different trends and tendencies of a group of traders whether you are sitting next to them looking at actual cards, or whether you are chatting looking at scans.

For example, I have become much more comfortable with the world of Twitter the past few months and have actually preferred it in many ways to some of the trade pages on Facebook.  One of the most popular activities on Twitter is the case break/box breaks.  There are tons of them.  Sure, there are some on Facebook, but they are much more constant and bigger on Twitter.

I am not a huge box break person.  If I am going to break a box I would rather order a box myself and open the cards myself.  There is something that takes away the fun of opening cards if you are watching someone else do it on a webcam.  However, there are several benefits to the case breaks on Twitter.  First, they are so frequent in some cases that the prices to get your foot in the door of the break are really cheap sometimes.  Second, they are a great conversation starter for trades.

2012 Topps Five Star Andre Ethier Jersey/Auto

Recently, I ran across a case break on Twitter at a discounted rate.  I joined and landed a few hits.  If you have never watched someone do a live case break people usually ew and ah over the hits.  So, I took my hits and flipped them around a few different ways to someone persons in the case break and ended up with a good haul of my own.  I still landed two Five Star Autographs.  The Ethier shown above and the David Freese card pictured below.  

2012 Topps Five Star David Freese

My other two trade pieces were kind of odd choices given that I wrote a post earlier this week knocking cards that were manufactured without a license.  It's true that I'd much rather have a card with a player wearing a logoed uniform and features the players team name rather than just the word Cincinnati.  However, there are time in life when you are limited by what is available.  So, being a fan of really cool autographs I couldn't find these two certified autographs in a MLB licensed product.  

1993 Nabisco Don Drysdale Autograph 

2012 Leaf Pete Rose Autograph

In this case, I added two great Hall of Fame autographs to my collection.  The Rose autographs from Leaf are plentiful, and there are better ones than the one above, but because of Rose's lifetime ban from baseball he has 0 licensed autographs.  Still a player worth owning an autograph of, but limited by what products are available.  Drysdale is limited since he died in 1993 before the certified autograph boom started.  This is, to my knowledge, his lone certified autograph.  

30 Year Top 50: Topps Triple Threads

#34-This post is going to be slightly different than the other posts that I have made for my Top 50 countdown.  I came up with the idea of doing this countdown leading into my 30th year in baseball card collecting this summer and put thought and consideration into where to rank all the different card sets that I have brought into my life since the summer of 1983.  The Triple Threads brand started in 2006 and is still currently running.  Every summer I eagerly await the release of Triple Threads and cannot wait to pick out a handful of really cool cards to add to my collection.  In many ways, the Triple Threads set is a top 10 on my personal list, but looking at the big picture and taking into account important rookies, design, etc, etc this is where it falls.  Note that I did not attach a year.  I do have a few I like more than others, but not a clear cut favorite.  Let me walk you through why I love this product:

2006 Triple Threads
I was initially really excited about the release of Triple Threads in 2006.  I rushed up to a card shop, which is no longer with us, in Durham to buy a pack.  Quickly spotting the product behind the counter I bought a pack of the high end product and immediately remembered my rule about high end wax.

2006 Topps Triple Threads Dan Johnson Dual Jersey/Autograph

Starring me back in this face was this Dan Johnson card.  Of course, he ended up playing for the Durham Bulls and won the International League MVP, so I would have ended up with the card in my collection anyway.  Right?  Disappointed, I did not open another pack of Triple Threads the rest of the year.  Since that time I have traded for a few.

2007 Triple Threads

My second venture into Triple Threads went much better.  I opened approximately zero packs of product, but worked the secondary market very hard to come up with a few gems for my collection.  My favorite:

My first Triple Threads card with a patch piece was a Shawn Riggans with two jersey pieces, a piece of green patch from the old Devil Rays unis, and an autograph.  I found it cheap in an Ebay auction and picked out the card since Riggans was having a great season for the Durham Bulls.  Riggans struggled in the majors and now out of baseball.  Still a cool card and turned the corner for me on this product. 

2007 Topps Triple Threads Shawn Riggans Dual Jersey/Patch/Autograph

2008 Triple Threads 

We all have misses in life and the 2008 Triple Threads set was a miss for me.  I didn't have many players I was excited to collect out of this set and the players I did collect, well....

2008 Topps Triple Threads Elijah Dukes Triple Bat/Autograph

I think I also picked up a few Jo Jo Reyes cards, Melky Cabrera, and a few other infamous characters.  I did pick up a good selection of Matt Holliday relic cards from this set after the Rockies run to the World Series.  This was the first year that I really went after the relics cards along with the autographs.  More recently, I landed a nice Dimaggio relic piece in a trade.  

2008 Topps Triple Threads Joe DiMaggio Six Piece Relic

2008 Topps Triple Threads Matt Holliday Six Piece Relic

2009 Triple Threads

I have two favorites in my collection from the 2009 set and would rank this set in a three way tie for the lead in the best Triple Threads sets.  My favorite card I picked up in 2009 which is a Ryan Braun patch/autograph.  This card has patch pieces from his Futures Game relics, the red/black/yellow pieces along with a thicker piece of black or navy patch.  I also love the word: HAMMER on the card.  If I ranked all of my Triple Threads cards against each other this would finish in the top 5.  

2009 Topps Triple Threads Ryan Braun Triple Patch/Autograph

My second card I picked up a few years ago after watching Nolan Reimold play for the Norfolk Tides. Sometimes I get a feeling about a player I watch in the minors and was fairly impressed by Reimold.  I found this card on Ebay really cheap and figured I would, at worst, have a really cool looking cards.  Reimold is looking like a regular though, so I think I did well with this card.  I love the orange jersey pieces and the yellow/red/black patch piece like the Braun. 

2009 Topps Triple Threads Autograph

2010 Triple Threads

I loved the 2010 release of Triple Threads.  If I had to narrow the Triple Threads sets down to the best, this would be another among my favorites.  The best part of the 2010 release was the inclusion of on-card autographs.  In someways, it gives this release a slight nod over the 2009 set, except the more standard looking Triple Threads cards were still sticker autographs.  My favorite two on card autographs were Andrew McCutchen and Howie Kendrick.  The McCutchen was my first McCutchen autograph and the Kendrick card is just signed really cool.  I've always like Howie's signature and I like how he just wrote over the whole card.  

2010 Topps Triple Threads Andrew McCutchen Jersey/Autograph

2010 Topps Triple Threads Howie Kendrick Jersey/Autograph 

The regular Triple Threads cards were still cool, but again, Topps used sticker autographs.  My favorite has to be Zorilla.  Ben Zobrist.  Again a personal Top 5 Triple Threads card. 

2010 Topps Triple Threads Seven Piece Relic/Autograph

2011 Triple Threads

The 2011 release was similar to the 2010 release in many ways and again, I would consider this to be among the three best Triple Threads sets along with the 2009 and 2010.  The veteran cards were generally sticker autographs.  My favorite is my Miguel Cabrera autograph, which I also collected all of the similar relic cards.  

2011 Topps Triple Threads 13 Piece Relic/Autograph

The young star players in the set were on card autographs like the 2010 release, but I felt the design of the 2011 cards was a little truer to the set.  

2011 Topps Triple Threads Jaime Garcia Triple Jersey/Autograph

The real drawback to this set, in my opinion, is the veteran cards with a single piece of jersey or patch.  If you are going to use sticker autographs the only reason to duck the design of the Cabrera card above is to cheapen the product.  I love the Matt Holliday card below, but I would have gladly tried to find a copy with multiple relic pieces in the regular Triple Threads format.

2011 Triple Threads Matt Holliday Patch/Autograph

2012 Triple Threads

I feel like the set has taken a little step back this year.  Still a really cool product and I own several really nice cards from the set, but the player selection is a little lacking in my opinion and there are several cards which are repeats from previous years.  Also, similar to the 2011 is the pattern on the autographs. Veterans are on stickers, younger players are on card, and there are single jersey autographs that are also stickers.  My two favorites from 2012:

2012 Topps Triple Threads David Freese Autograph

 2012 Topps Triple Threads Lance Lynn Jersey/Autograph

If you like the follow up I do on card sets not in my Top 50 be sure to check back tomorrow for a special piece I am putting together on a few sets released over the past few years similar to the Triple Threads releases.